In a major boost to next-generation artificial intelligence research, a young startup focused on teaching machines to understand the physical world has secured significant new capital to scale its ambitions.
Fei-Fei Li’s artificial intelligence startup, World Labs, has raised $1 billion in a fresh funding round as it ramps up work on what it describes as “spatial intelligence.” The funding marks a key milestone for the company as it expands efforts to build AI systems that can understand and interact with the 3-dimensional world.
The round attracted support from a mix of technology companies and investment firms, including Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia, Autodesk, Emerson Collective, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Sea, among others. Autodesk committed $200 million as part of the round and will also serve in an advisory role, according to the design software maker.
Spatial intelligence represents a shift beyond traditional AI systems that largely rely on 2-dimensional inputs such as images or text. This approach focuses on reasoning about how the real-world environment works in 3 dimensions. World Labs is building foundational models designed to perceive, generate, and operate within 3-dimensional spaces, enabling more immersive and interactive technologies.
Widely known as the “godmother of AI,” Li had earlier raised $230 million in September 2024 to launch World Labs. Her broader vision is that spatial intelligence could support applications across augmented reality, virtual reality, robotics, and scientific research.
World Labs is part of a growing group of AI developers working on so-called “world models.” These systems aim to process visual data from the physical environment to develop advanced reasoning abilities. Google DeepMind is pursuing similar work through its Genie family of models, which can generate and simulate 30 environments.
Separately, Yann LeCun, formerly Meta’s chief AI scientist, has left the social media company to launch AMI Labs, a startup focused on AI systems built on world models.
Late last year, World Labs introduced its first product, Marble, a multimodal world model that can create 3-dimensional worlds from image or text prompts. The company said Marble can generate immersive digital environments by interpreting visual or textual instructions.
With the $1 billion infusion, World Labs is expected to speed up research and product development, especially in robotics and other areas that require machines to interpret and act within real-world 3-dimensional settings.
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